Stuck GitHub Pages workflow re-run cannot be cancelled, returns 409 conflict

[Nathan-Peng]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Discussion Details

Hello GitHub Support Team,

Repository: Nathan-Peng/nathan-peng.github.io
Stuck Workflow Run ID: 28766814313
Workflow name: pages build and deployment
Run page URL: https://github.com/Nathan-Peng/nathan-peng.github.io/actions/runs/28766814313

Issue Description

This workflow run was triggered via Re-run approximately two weeks ago.
The API always returns status: queued, but I cannot cancel it via both web UI and REST API.

When calling the cancel endpoint:
POST https://api.github.com/repos/Nathan-Peng/nathan-peng.github.io/actions/runs/28766814313/cancel
Response error:
{
"message": "Cannot cancel a workflow re-run that has not yet queued.",
"status": "409"
}

This appears to be an internal backend state inconsistency bug:

1. Frontend & public API expose status = queued
2. Internal scheduler marks this re-run as "not yet queued", so cancellation is permanently blocked
3. The job will never start executing, and there is no self-service way to terminate or purge it.

Request

Please manually purge / mark this stuck ghost workflow run as cancelled on the backend.
Thank you very much for your assistance.

Best regards
Nathan-Peng

[github-actions[bot]]

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[initial-d]

This does look like a stale re-run state rather than a YAML/workflow configuration problem.

A few useful distinctions:

• A normal queued Actions run should still be cancellable from the UI or with POST /actions/runs/{run_id}/cancel.
• If the public run status says queued, but the cancel endpoint says Cannot cancel a workflow re-run that has not yet queued with 409, GitHub's scheduler state and the public run state are probably out of sync.
• For GitHub Pages specifically, there is not a user-side "purge this one workflow run" control. Pushing a new commit or manually triggering a newer Pages deployment may move the live site forward, but it usually will not clean up the stuck historical run.

So I would treat this as a backend/support case. Before opening the ticket, I would collect:

• repository: Nathan-Peng/nathan-peng.github.io
• run id: 28766814313
• the run URL
• the exact 409 response from the cancel API
• confirmation that it has stayed queued for about two weeks
• whether newer Pages deployments can still complete successfully

If newer deployments still work, the practical workaround is to ignore this old stuck run and deploy from a fresh commit. If the stuck run blocks the Pages environment/deployment queue or keeps the repository in a bad state, GitHub Support/staff will likely need to clear it from the backend.

[v-ember]

Hi @Nathan-Peng ,

This community is managed by GitHub employees, but it is not a support forum. The only place to go for answers to account-specific questions like this one is opening a ticket on our Support page.

This is a public forum, and the community is unable to assist with nor escalate your ticket, but we can assure you it is in the right place. There are an extremely high volume of Support tickets right now, yours will be answered in the order it was received based on the amount of tickets ahead of yours. Please open only one ticket per request.

As no other Community Discussions team members will be able to provide additional help with account related questions I am going to close this discussion. We appreciate your understanding and patience while Support works through your request!